


Big Brother, Little Brother.

by ur_local_aang_kinnie



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Big Brother Sokka (Avatar), Episode: s02e20 The Crossroads of Destiny, F/M, Gaang (Avatar) as Family, Gen, Men Crying, Protective Sokka (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar)-centric, Team as Family, The Gaang - Freeform, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 15:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30090897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ur_local_aang_kinnie/pseuds/ur_local_aang_kinnie
Summary: Aang wasn't the little brother Sokka wanted, per se, but he loves him anyway, and spirits help anyone who hurts his little brother.
Relationships: Aang & Sokka (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	Big Brother, Little Brother.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking about Sokka's trauma and,, yeah

If there was one thing in this world that Sokka wanted most, it was a little brother. It was something he had craved ever since his mother first realized she was pregnant. Of course, Sokka loved his sister. He loved his sister with all of his heart, and he wouldn't trade her for the world, but he always imagined having a little brother would be different- they would have a different bond than he had with Katara. Sokka would get to teach his little brother how to hunt and fish, how to throw a boomerang. He could teach his little brother all his favorite stories and they could play pranks on Katara together.

And then Mom died.

After his mother was killed, Sokka gave up any hope he had of having a little brother. Especially after his father left for the war, and Sokka was left as the oldest male in the tribe who wasn't an elder, that dream of a little brother wasn't something he could focus on anymore. No, Sokka had to pick himself up by his bootstraps and do his job. He had to focus on what he had. He had to focus on the little sister that was real and not just in his head. He had to focus on keeping her, the very last Water Bender of the Southern Water Tribe, alive and safe. He had to ensure that his tribe would survive through the winters and remain under the radar enough that the Fire Navy ships that passed by once in a while would pay them no mind. He had to ensure that he could catch enough food to support the tribe since most of the women in their community were too busy raising children to help hunt or fish.

And then Aang came around.

When they first found Aang, Sokka considered him a threat. Anything, but especially people, that he knew for a matter of fact didn't originate from his tribe were automatically considered dangerous to him. The way that this boy smiled at Sokka's sister and his giant, supposedly flying, cow wasn't helping in the slightest. Once he realized Aang was the Avatar, though, that made everything even more complicated. He had so many questions for this kid, but there didn't seem to be any good time to ask. Where had the Avatar gone all those years ago? Why was he in an iceberg? Why was he so young, if the last Avatar would have been born over 100 years ago? Once they got to The Southern Air Temple, though, when they watched Aang go into the Avatar State as grief and pain-filled him completely, Sokka understood the power that this boy, only a few years his own junior, possessed. He saw the massively terrifying power that this child contained, watching with fear and curiosity as his eyes glowed and he lost control of his body, and yet he wanted to protect him. As Sokka watched his sister hold the young Avatar in her arms as he cried, Sokka wanted to take them both and shield them away from the world. He had only known the young monk for a few days, but he felt the same way about him that he felt about Katara (not that he would ever say that out loud).

As their little family traveled across the world, Sokka's desire to protect Aang only grew. He still hadn't said that out loud, of course, but he showed it when he could. When Sokka would be awoken by the sound of Aang crying, which was quite often considering how many nightmares the boy seemed to have, Sokka would rise from his sleeping bag and, without saying a word, coax Aang back to sleep, rubbing his back, and humming a song his mother had sung to him as a child when he would have nightmares. Sokka joked about Aang's refusal to eat meat often, but he still found himself subconsciously ensuring that any food given to Aang didn't have any meat in it, especially as they got to Ba Sing Se. Not having Appa around was hard on all of them, but especially Aang. Sokka didn't want his little brother to deal with any more unnecessary stress. With Toph around, he felt like he had another little sister too, but ironically she was much more like the little brother Sokka had imagined than Aang was. He loved them both though- he loved all of them so much.

And then his little brother died.

The evening that Ba Sing Se fell felt like a blur in Sokka's mind, the memories coming to him in fragments. Maybe it's because it's not something he thinks about often- in fact, he often wishes he didn't remember any part of that day or the weeks that followed. He wished it had never happened. He wished that the angry scar that marred his little brother's back wasn't there, interrupting the scared blue lines drawn onto his skin 100 years before, one of the last remnants of a people Sokka would never know etched into his very flesh. He wished his little sister hadn't had to spend weeks without sleeping, caring for the boy she had come to love in more ways than one. He wished his youngest sister hadn't lost her sarcastic streak those few weeks, that she had been able to lighten the mood because Sokka himself certainly couldn't (deep down though, he knew none of them had the energy to waste on humor). He wished that the Earth King had been stronger- than he had been able to protect his kingdom without the help of children. He wished his father understood that Aang was more than the Avatar to them- that he was a person and not an idea.

Most of what Sokka does remember of that night just involved flying laps on Appa, waiting for his siblings to come back. It felt like it took so long, just going in circle after circle, waiting and stressing and arguing with Toph about whether they should go check on them or not. He remembered the sharp winds nipping at his face, cold and still as they flew through them. He remembered that he couldn't stop picking at the rope that made up Appa's reins, Sokka was almost certain he left a dent in the places where his nails had torn through the thread with anxiety. He remembered the Earth King asking so many questions, but he couldn't remember what he had asked, only that he didn't have any answers.

The worst memory, though, was when he first saw Katara holding the lifeless body of Aang. It took him much longer than he'd like to admit to process what exactly had happened, but when it hit him he couldn't hold back from crying. Silent, hiccupping sobs wracked his body as he stared at his siblings, and he could see Toph doing the same out of the corner of his eye. His little brother, his best friend, the most genuine person he knew was dead. The Fire Nation had taken another person from him. As Katara desperately tried to heal him with the spirit water, Sokka held his breath. When Aang reacted, though, even just the slightest reaction, Sokka felt the blood rush back into his head and suddenly he was hyper-aware of his surroundings. He was almost light-headed as everything hit him at once, but he had to restrain himself from screaming as he heard the Earth King mumble something about the Earth Kingdom falling.

 _'How dare he?'_ Sokka had thought. How dare he make this about himself? How dare he make this about the Earth kingdom? Didn't he realize that Aang had just died- or even if he was still alive (which Sokka wasn't even sure if he was), that he had been severely hurt? That a little boy was never going to be the same? Didn't he understand how important Aang was as a person, not just as the Avatar? He bit his tongue to keep from screaming at the king and cringed as the taste of blood filled his mouth. The level-headed, logical side of his brain told him that the Earth King didn't mean to diminish Aang's sacrifice. The emotional side of his brain, though, his heart and his soul screamed back that even if he hadn't meant it, that's what he had done whether it was his intention or not.

At that moment, all Sokka wanted was Aang to pop back up and look at them all with that goofy smile of his. Sokka wanted to go back to sleeping in the woods. He wanted to go back to laughing with his friends until his sides hurt. He wanted to take a break and just be kids, even if it was just for one day. He wanted his family back together. He wanted his mother to hold him in his arms, to tell him everything would be okay. He wanted his father to clap him on the back and tell him that he did a good job, that he didn't have to worry about anything now, and that the adults were going to handle it. Sokka had never liked being told that he was too young to participate in things or that the adults could deal with it on their own, but right now he wished desperately that he and his friends weren't the ones to end this war; that that didn't have to be the ones to save a grown man from his own corrupted government. That they didn't have two maniacs chasing them all over the world. If there was one thing Sokka wanted most in this world, though, it was his little brother.


End file.
